Afghanistan, 1976 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 26 November 1976, during a period of coup plotting against President Mohammad Daoud Khan's Republic of Afghanistan. Daoud had seized power in the 1973 coup that overthrew the monarchy of his cousin King Zahir Shah, establishing a one-party republic with early support from the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. His government faced repeated coup attempts, and in 1976 an attempted coup instigated by discontented retired officers and led by a retired general, Mir Ahmad Shah, was discovered and some fifty persons arrested.
Meanwhile Daoud was drifting away from the Soviet Union and cracking down on political opposition, which turned the Soviet-backed PDPA against him; by the party's own later account it had begun plotting a coup as early as 1976. The Islamist Qiyam-i Islami separately attempted to overthrow Daoud in December 1976. The November 1976 coding sits in this period of anti-Daoud conspiracy, corresponding to the discovered retired-officers plot.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
70011261976
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Daoud survived the 1976 plots but was overthrown and killed in the April 1978 Saur Revolution.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Times
LA Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →